With
lots of us needing to get wet again before the end of the dive season, a trip
to the lake was in order. Brett was the organiser. This time we opted for
Buckland Dive Centre ( http://www.polarisscuba.co.uk/ ),
hoping for better visibility than we had on our last lake trip. 12 divers (plus
2 non-divers) were on this trip, some having been on the eventful Shoreham
dives the day before.
Everyone
had different reasons for diving today - some of us continued our Ocean Diver
and Sports Diver training, Ken was refining his kit configuration and buoyancy,
and others just wanted to get some practice in and build their confidence in
the water. Sally, Mariette and Victor concentrated on compass navigation and
DSMB deployment. Lee, Navneet, Jill, Grant the younger, Steve, Bjørn and
Rajan also dived.
Buckland is easy enough to
find from our side of London (take the A2, then follow the signs that say
"Brett"!). Entry is £10 per diver, and cylinder fills were £5. The kitting
up area was well organised - Bermondsey BSAC were allocated an area with proper
benches and enough space for everyone. The dive centre's dog happily accepted
tummy rubs from any willing donor.
The
visibility proved to be good enough - 5 metres in some places, so that the
site's various underwater features were easy to find. The famous shark,
however, was away being repaired (as it was when we were last here in March),
and the site map on the pontoon needed updating - this created some confusion
underwater!
Supreet
was celebrating her birthday today, and (with Rashi) brought amazing
food to share with the club, which was very much appreciated.
The sun shone for most of the day (as it always does when we come here), and we were home by 4.30pm. A successful trip.
